Bradley R. Wardell is an American Businessman, programer and author. He is the founder, president and CEO of Stardock Corporation, a company dedicated to the development of software and computer games.

Brad's forte is the design and programing of AI and game mechanics for turn-based strategy games.

Pre Gamergate

Clickbait article about Brad Wardell being sued for sexual harassment

Stardock sued Alexandra Miseta for destroying marketing data and quitting her job without notice. This info was vital for the the production of Elemental: War on Magic, the game Brad and his company were working at the moment. No software focused sites reported these news because it wasn't relevant. Yet Kotaku (a gaming site) decided to cover this story from the perspective of a boss being sued for the sexual harassment.

On September 6, 2012 Kate Cox wrote an article [1] where she claimed Brad Wardell and his company were suing Alexandra Miseta(an ex-employee) for maliciously deleting marketing data that damaged the production of one of his works but only after she had sued him for sexual harassment. Cox didn't contact Brad for his side before the article was released. This resulted in a one-sided and biased story which had to be updated to rectify it.[2]

Ben Kuchera signal-boosted this article in Penny Arcade Report with the title "Stardock CEO Brad Wardell sued for sexual harassment, with some damning evidence" which was later changed "to heavely allegations"[3] as it became clear that Kotaku’s article was heavily flawed. Until this day, Kuchera hasn't issued an apology for saying there was damning evidence that he had been guilty of sexual harassment.

In regards to the outrage generated by the story, Wardell said on his blog:

"Within days of the article hitting, forum posts, follow-up articles and abuse started flooding the net. I received numerous death threats including one so specific (it was clear they had driven up close to our house) that we called the police. The death threats included rape threats against my wife and disgusting vile threats against my children.

For the past two years since, not a week goes by where someone doesn't send me a hate message or ensure that one of our products or services being covered somewhere doesn't get tarnished with the disgusting allegations that were made. Any time I speak on a given topic, this comes up.

In 2013, the case was dismissed with prejudice and the plaintiff had to issue a public apology. By any reasonable standard, this should have been the end of it. And yet, years later, I still am expected to somehow prove a negative."
— Brad Wardell [4]

Cox and Kuchera's actions set off a chain reaction, where other news media outlets and blogs picked up the story, citing the original Kotaku article and further spreading the allegations.[5] Even after Kotaku's article was proven to be wrong, the damage to his reputation was huge and still remains until this day.

Role in Gamergate

Evidence of poor journalism

Brad's case, just like Max Temkim's, has been mentioned by #GamerGate as a notable example of the biased and inefficient reporting done by sites like Kotaku and gaming journalists like Ben Kuchera.

The Escapist's interview about #GamerGate

On October 10, 2014, Brad Wardell is interviewed by The Escapist Magazine as a part of a #Gamergate interview series to Game Developers. In it Brad talks about the double standard in game journalist where the tone and research of a story vary depending on the gender of the person they're covering. How harmful this is and how this affected his works years ago. He also speaks about how SJWs have wrongly smeared people in the industry, the lack of proper reporting and how gamers have lost trust in the Gaming media now because of this and they're now seeking better mediums to get their information about video games.[6]

On November 2, 2014, Brad saw a tweet from @shreddedMoose, a comic artist that has shown his support on the search of better standards in Gaming media in which he wished he could work on doing #GamerGate comics and be more involved in the video games industry.[7] Brad saw this and noticed him that Stardock is hiring.[8]

Zoe Quinn took offense in this since ShreddedMoose drew comics attacking her in the past. Zoe tweeted that Brad offered a job to someone that drew himself fucking her to do art. Bradwell called her out on her since he has a tradition of inviting people to apply, something he even did to Zoe years ago.[9][10]

Later that day, Jim Sterling, who has been pushing Zoe's narrative of victimhood since wizardchan's false claims in 2013, retweeted in support of Zoe Quinn's call for the blacklisting of ShreddedMoose. Wardell showed disgust to this action and clarified the situation.[11]Brianna Wu also twitted against Wardell and his company, asking for a boycott against them in the name of women.[12]

Zoe Quinn even brought up the Sexual Harassment accussations that Wardell received years ago[13][14] despite them being proven false in the past.

At the end of the day Brad Wardell wrote a blog post about all this, addressing all of these events and added a comment directed at Zoe Quinn and her calls to blacklist people she dislikes:

"Zoe Quinn and her ilk’s message is as clear as it is pathetic: Game developers like myself better blacklist people they deem unacceptable or they’ll face the wrath of their mob and sympathetic game journalists.

Here’s the problem, Zoe. You misunderstand how the game industry actually functions outside your hugbox: Everyone deserves an opportunity to work in this industry. Their talent, hard work, and merit determine how successful they are. Not their politics. Not who they are friends with. Not whether they’re a man or a woman. Not what color they are. Talent. Hard work. Merit. "
— Brad Wardell [15]